Fides et febris
by dooder's nin
Summary: Placing trust in others when trusting in oneself can be difficult as Jackson well knows. But when attempting to keep his physical and emotional problems to himself results in misconceptions on both his part and those of his friends, everyone comes to learn that showing a willingness to be more open with that trust among good friends is something to strive for.


The hallways of Monster High moved along with their typical bustle, the girls chatting as they gathered their things and walked at a leisurely pace. But while they were able to apparently navigate seamlessly, at least metaphorically for Frankie, there were others who had a harder time. It wasn't every day, but Jackson as the school's normie sometimes found that his routine involved more trials than the regular adolescent boy normally faced in the hallways. As it was, Jackson was already having an off day from the moment he woke up and realized that he had come down with the sniffles. He attributed it to the fact that Holt and Frankie had managed to go for a swim in some chilly waters in the catacombs accidentally a couple of days ago as they prepared an awesome party. He had only been awake for part of that experience as Holt had fished Frankie out of the water in time to keep her from shorting out, resulting in his own headphones eventually frying and leaving Jackson to wait with Frankie for their friends to come rescue them. But as much as he would have liked to just roll over and go back to sleep, he knew that he had a test that he couldn't actually make up if he missed it, despite him being the highest ranking student in that class.

So he had taken a few aspirin in the hopes of easing the headache and sinus congestion enough to make it through the day, or at least until after fifth period. He had more or less avoided his friends, even though he knew they would have likely sympathized with him. It had become a habit to keep his shortcomings, or the ones he thought he had thanks to going to school with monsters, to himself and work through his issues. Having another side of him too probably also helped contribute to the development of this particular habit. As soon as he had taken the test, a bit of a challenge with his oncoming cold, he had opted to find a quiet spot during the lunch period to try and get a quick rest before the last class of the day. His study howl period was pretty much the same thing, isolating himself in the corner away from the others. He had been bounced around in the hallways, a couple of the more aggressive jerks pushing him into the wall and causing him to nearly drop what he had been carrying.

But he had hoped that by sitting at one of the back tables that usually got blasted with a draft, and no one normally wanted, would give him some time to pull himself together. He had thought about just letting Holt out to deal with this, but figured that his alter ego would undoubtedly do something that would make his headache worse when he woke back up, assuming this cold didn't affect Holt. He sighed again, not for the first time wishing he could understand how that thing worked and regretting that it didn't seem like sicknesses really went both ways. Injuries certainly did as Jackson learned early on and occasionally Holt experienced if the injuries were severe enough on Jackson. Leaning back in his chair he rubbed his forehead with his hand, sure that he had developed a fever. His whole body ached and he was desperately hoping that this was one of those twenty-four-hour bugs that often went around. They had been fewer since coming to Monster High than when he had been attending normie schools, since the monsters here didn't carry the same kinds of colds that he was susceptible to. But there were plenty of other times that there had been strange colds that he did his best to avoid catching, unsure what they might do to him. Luckily, there didn't seem to be a need for that kind of concern this time. Jackson was trying to ignore the way his body shivered and the looks that his friends would occasionally cast his way, especially Frankie. Jackson loved that she wanted to take care of him whenever she thought he needed it, but her nursing abilities were also still developing and he wasn't so sure he was ready for another round.

"What's got you in such a bad funk?" a disembodied voice next to Jackson asked, causing him to jerk upright fast and knock his books to the ground. His books made a loud smack as they hit the floor, getting the other students' attention. Invisibilly made himself visible again as Jackson recovered from his shock, garnering a few laughs around the room as the invisible boy again startled someone.

"Ah! Billy, don't do that!" Jackson grumbled, bending down to gather his stuff off the floor. "Today is not the day for it." He continued, shooting the boy a peeved look. Invisibilly just shrugged, not looking at all ashamed for having frightened his fellow student.

"You too? Everybody seems grumpy today." The invisible boy answered, focusing on remaining visible to talk with Jackson. Jackson readjusted his glasses and slumped back in his chair, subtly waving to Frankie who continued to look over her shoulder at the two of them. "Especially Manny" Invisibilly grumbled. "It's a good thing he couldn't see me earlier when he was on a rampage. Something to do with not getting a better grade because some student messed up the curve…" Invisibilly finished, arching an eyebrow at Jackson to let him know who exactly Manny had been talking about.

"Thanks for the warning." Jackson sighed. "What are you doing over here today anyway?" he grouchily asked the boy. "I thought no one ever sat over here."

Again Jackson received a shrug in response. "No, you just don't see anybody over here. This is one of my free periods and Scarah has this class. Normally the teacher isn't too fond of letting a student not in this class sit in just to be with his girlfriend and so we talk telepathically." Invisibilly explained. "There's a substitute today so I thought we could talk."

Invisibilly was a good friend to Jackson, but they didn't really hang out all that much outside of school. Still, Jackson appreciated the gesture. "Thanks Billy, but like I said, today's not such a hot day for me." Jackson replied, wincing at the pun he let slip. Invisibilly apparently also caught on to it and smiled as he lightly chuckled. "Does it have anything to do with why your friends think you're mad at them? Frankie in particular keeps worrying loudly enough to give Scarah a headache." He said, looking out for his own girlfriend.

"What? Why do they think I'm mad at them?" Jackson asked. Invisibilly rolled his eyes. "Hey, I'm not the mind reader man. And they can't figure out what they did either." He said to Jackson, who shifted around in his seat.

"I'm not mad. I'm sick." Jackson said bluntly. "I'm just trying to get through the rest of the day. Try not to let Scarah know or she might let the others know." He said, indicating with his head the direction of his friends. "I didn't want to worry them but apparently that backfired."

"Oh. Sorry then." Invisibilly said. "Why didn't you just go to the nurse or something?" he asked his friend. "You could have gone home early too."

"I was going to, but the guys asked me to help them film something after school for them." He said. "Deuce, Clawd, and Gil are making some sort of sports montage thing for a project and need someone to hold the camera steady…not so sure I'm the best person for that right now." He said, sliding his hands out from under the desk to let Invisibilly see them shaking a little as Jackson shivered.

"Whoa…you sure you don't want to just tell them? I doubt they'd hold it against you." Invisibilly said. "You could help them over the weekend too. It is a Friday after all." Jackson just shrugged in response, which seemed to be the best kind of response he could give at the moment. Invisibilly rolled his eyes before attempting one more time to give his friend some advice. "At least tell them if they want you to do something you're not up for – unless you want to hear about it from Frankie."

"Oh, that's just blackmail." Jackson grumbled but nodded anyway, earning a smug smile from his friend. "No, blackmail would be letting me see your notes too." he said, grabbing Jackson's binder and flipping to the class that they did have together. "I skipped earlier but I doubt the teacher noticed." He said in response to Jackson's unspoken question. Jackson just nodded again, shivering again a little more noticeably. The rest of the period was spent in relative silence between the two, Invisibilly periodically checking on Jackson to keep him awake. Once the bell rang, Invisibilly once again warned Jackson to take it easy before turning invisible and leaving him to grab his stuff.

"Hey dude." Deuce said as he walked with Jackson back to his locker. "You're still gonna help out today, right?" he asked his best friend. Jackson nodded but was wishing things could be a little quieter. It must have shown on his face as his friend took it to mean that he wasn't in the mood to talk. "Okay, well, we'll meet you out back then."

"Yeah. I'll see you there. Oh! Do you have the camera or does Clawd?" Jackson asked, attempting to put a little more enthusiasm into his voice as he thought back on his conversation with Invisibilly. It seemed to help as Deuce brightened up a bit. "Clawd's bringing it. Heath might be joining us too…but we don't know when. He's supposed to be a part of the group project too, but he pulled the short straw and did the written portion of it this time." He said, smiling as he recalled Heath's bummed expression. Jackson gave a genuine smile at that thought too, imagining Heath having to focus long enough to pull something together.

"I'm not so sure that's the best thing for you guys." Jackson said, slowly getting his things together. He paused as he looked back up from packing his backpack as a longer dizzy spell hit him. Deuce continued to talk and Jackson realized that he might need to respond when his friend was just standing there.

"Sorry Deuce. I kinda spaced out for a sec…y'know, checking to make sure I've got everything." Jackson said, slinging his bag over his shoulders and slamming his locker shut. Deuce looked sideways at him before buying Jackson's little fib.

"Not a problem, dude. Happens to me all the time too." he said, walking alongside his friend. "I was saying that the graveball team is going to be practicing and we might be able to hang out with the girls since they're gonna practice outside too." They paused at Deuce's locker as they waited for Clawd and Gil to join them. "By the way…Frankie thinks something is up between the two of you. I know you two, uh, three have some difficult patches but everything cool?" he asked.

Jackson leaned against the lockers as he stood next to his friend, picking up on the irony of that statement as he felt like he was freezing. He wondered how his friend hadn't already called him out on the flush that he was pretty sure his fever had caused to break out on his face. But he tried to continue with the façade and shrugged in response to Deuce's question. "Nothing so far as I know. Maybe with Holt? All I know is that I'm looking forward to taking her to see that boovie Sunday." He said, hoping that by then he really would be able to carry out their plans. Deuce nodded along with him as he finished up, Clawd walking over to them with the camera so that they could head out.

"Hey guys" Clawd greeted them. "Gil's gonna meet us out there – just needed to catch up with Lagoona for something first." He said, the three of them walking out back to get ready. True to his word, Gil showed up only a few minutes after they were ready and Jackson did his best to hold the camera steady. Heath hadn't shown up and Jackson found that although he knew his cousin would have definitely figured out that something was off with him, he also missed having the opportunity to hear that somebody cared enough to notice. Deuce had seemed to suspect that there was more to his story earlier, but Jackson guessed that his friend was probably leaving it up to him to decide to tell him.

As Deuce had explained, the graveball team was practicing and they could see the girls also choreographing their programs too. A few times Gil had to remind Deuce and Clawd to focus, as their attention inevitably drifted over to watching their girlfriends' practice session. The first few times they tried their short film sequence, they had messed it up on their own. On the third take for the first of the three clips they had planned to make, they had seemed to think it was good enough until they watched the playback.

"Aw, Jackson. The camera's shaking man." Clawd complained. "We're gonna need to try that again now." He said, walking back over to where he had been standing to set up for another attempt.

"Ugh…can we take a break first? Get a glass of water maybe?" Gil said. "It's too dry out here without any shade." The water monster complained.

"That's a good idea. We should take a break." Jackson rushed to agree, needing to sit down for a while too. Deuce and Clawd reluctantly agreed and walked over to cross the graveball field to head back into the school. Jackson sat down on one of the benches, out of sight from everyone. He debated on laying down until the guys got back, but thought that he might fall asleep and wasn't willing to risk it.

"Are you sure?" Jackson heard a voice drift over to him, sounding very much like the zombie-unicorn hybrid he knew as Neightan. He shifted a little to make sure he wasn't seen, not wanting to interrupt anybody's conversation or be accused of eavesdropping either.

"I'm sure Neighthan." Frankie said, pushing him further behind the bleachers where Jackson had sat. There was only a thin sheet of banner paper that was preventing the two from spotting him, but Frankie's secretive behavior only made him more curious.

"We could go to the dance after the game together?" Neighthan asked. Frankie smiled at her one-time crush, although to Jackson it didn't seem like she had moved on with the blush that was still on her cheeks.

"I'm going to be there anyway." She said, holding up her hands for him to see the pom-poms she was holding. Neightan nervously laughed, rubbing the back of his head.

"I know, I know. It's just…I…Frankie, I really do…" he mumbled, turning his head away as he continued to keep speaking. Jackson could see them from his hiding spot, but they were also far enough away that he couldn't quite make out what they were talking about. He was hoping that maybe he was starting to hallucinate and his girlfriend wasn't actually deciding to trade him for another guy without having the decency to at least tell him for sure that she had considered them over. He anxiously waited to see what they would say or do next, thinking on the fact that they had just told each other that they loved each other only a few days ago. It wasn't like Frankie to play around with people, but it was like her to be unable to handle making a choice and it seemed like she was trying to decide between her boyfriend and Neighthan. Jackson thought that maybe their conversation was over when the two started to walk back over closer to Jackson.

"Aww, Neighthan, I do still care about you. I'll be here for you." Frankie said, standing up on her tiptoes. Neighthan turned to look directly at her from wherever he was staring off, catching her kiss on the lips. The two broke apart, Frankie's bolts sparking as she covered her mouth with her hands. Neighthan just laughed at her, eyes also wide. It looked like they were going to say more, but Jackson had seen and heard enough, lifting himself off the bench as fast as he could to race back into the school before he was sick. He scrambled through the hallways in his desperation to just get away, not paying attention when Manny spotted him running by and decided to go after him. Jackson stopped his sprint and leaned against a windowsill as he tried to catch his breath and keep from crying. He couldn't believe that Frankie had decided to move on from him for real. He had thought that his brief scare with the notion of her breaking up with him and her emphatic stance to the contrary was positive proof that they were going to remain as boyfriend and girlfriend. He still had his eyes clenched shut when he felt himself being lifted up by the collar and slammed into the window. He opened his eyes wide to see Manny glowering at him, just as Invisibilly had warned him of in class.

"You've caused me to have a really bad day." The minotaur growled. "My mom isn't going to be pleased that you cost me a passing grade." He said, roughing up Jackson as he spoke. Jackson wasn't able to do more than think his mantra of "don't pass out, don't pass out, don't pass out" as Manny shook him around and made the world spin a little more than it already was. Manny dropped him back to the floor, Jackson staggering a little to keep a hold of his footing. "I thought I might as well try to blow off some steam on you." Manny threatened, taking a half-hearted swing at Jackson to get him to stumble. As expected Jackson dodged and went face-first into one of the lockers. Manny laughed at him, picking him up again and turning him around to face him. "Well, if you want to go in there so badly, you should've just asked." Manny mocked, pressing harder on Jackson's chest and neck as he dangled him with one hand and made to open the locker with the other. Unfortunately, nose bloodied and already woozy from his physical and emotional distress, Jackson wasn't able to do much more than claw at Manny's arm a few times before he went slack in his hold as he passed out.

Manny wasn't prepared for his anger release victim to suddenly become limp and he promptly dropped Jackson onto the floor. "Jackson?" Manny asked, poking the unconscious boy with his foot. "You better not be messing with me!" he tried to threaten, but panicked when Jackson continued to remain unmoving on the floor. Looking around to see if there was anyone in the hallway, Manny was debating on whether or not he should do something when he heard Heath's voice calling out to him from around the corner.

"Hey Manny! That you I hear?" Heath called out, spurring the minotaur to quickly pick up Jackson and shove him into the locker, shutting it as Heath managed to come around the corner. "Hey man, I thought I heard you. Listen, have you seen Jackson anywhere? He was supposed to be helping with a project." Heath asked. Manny shifted under Heath's look, awkwardly playing with his hands as he tried to think up a good response. "Uh…nope. Haven't seen him." He said, smiling wider than normal. Heath looked at him suspiciously.

"What are you doing?" Heath asked. "You're acting weird. This have anything to do with Iris or something?" Heath asked, trying to figure out why his friend was behaving so differently. Manny just shook his head and shrugged, trying to casually lean against the locker containing Jackson. Heath continued to stare at him for a couple seconds more, Manny beginning to sweat a little. But Heath just shook his head at his friend. "Well if you do see him, tell him the others are waiting for him. I'm gonna go check if he's in his usual spots upstairs in the labs." Heath said walking away, Manny waving at him as he left. As soon as Heath no longer could see him, Manny sprinted out to find Deuce, Clawd, and Gil. Spotting them waiting over by the fountain, Gil actually relaxing in it while they waited, he bolted over to them at a pace that caught their attention.

"Whoa Manny!" Deuce said, holding up his hands to get him to slow down. "What's up with you?" he asked, his snakes twisting around as they were startled.

"Guys, you gotta come quick." Manny pleaded with them, huffing a little. Clawd looked curiously at his friend. "What is it? What's wrong?" the werewolf asked, having only seen his friend this agitated a few times.

Manny let out a low bellow before answering. "It's Jackson…" he began, the others looking even more concerned now. "I roughed him up a bit, but I think I may have…broke him." He said, causing the others to stare back at him astonished. "Come on guys, I need your help. You can't tell Heath about this." He begged. "He'd never forgive me."

Deuce stood up from his seat. "And he'd have every right not to! What did you do?!" he shouted angrily at the minotaur. Pushing aside his anger for the moment, he sighed and asked, "Where is he?" Manny motioned for the others to follow the fast running minotaur back to the hallway where he had found Jackson.

"Okay, so where is he?" Gil asked, looking around as though he could spot Jackson crumpled in a heap by the side of the wall.

"Heath came by after he passed out. I panicked." Manny said, trying to defend himself. Clawd growled. "Manny, how does that help us?" he asked in frustration. Manny held his hands up in the air in a gesture of surrender. "Hey, what was I supposed to do?" he asked, rushing ahead to continue once he saw the others ready to immediately respond. "I shoved him into one of the lockers so Heath wouldn't see what I'd done to him…I just can't remember which one." He admitted. Gil and Clawd shook their heads and Deuce ran a hand over his face.

"Fine. Let's just see if we can find him quickly then." He said, attempting to use his heat-sensing abilities to find his friend. As Clawd and Gil went individually to the lockers to try and peer inside, Manny stood next to Deuce as he scanned over the lockers, unsure of what to do with himself now.

"Hey! I found him!" Gil shouted out, beginning to try and pry open the locker door. Having already been loosened by Manny's earlier brute strength, it came open easier than he had expected and Jackson fell on top of Gil, unmoving.

"Gah!" Gil shouted from underneath his friend, rolling him off as the others made their way over to them. "Man, what did you do to him?" Gil asked of Manny, who continued to make whining noises in his panic.

"I got mad that he screwed up the curve on that test earlier. He doesn't usually do this when I mess with him." Manny said, afraid that he had done something unfixable this time.

"Well you need to stop!" Deuce said, lifting his friend up into a sitting position to check him over. Aside from the bloody nose, he couldn't find any other injuries. Running a hand along his head to check for any lumps from a knock to the head, he noticed how much hotter his friend was. He had thought he was seeing things with his heat-sensing abilities, but Jackson seemed to be burning up. He smacked his friend's face gently to try and wake him up. "Dude, c'mon, time to wake up." He said, shaking Jackson a little. Jackson just groaned a little in response but remained unconscious.

"Well at least he made some sign of life." Clawd said. "But how are we supposed to fix him now?" he asked. "We don't know for sure what's wrong with him."

Deuce maneuvered Jackson in his grip so he could pick him up and carry him outside, hopeful that the fresh air might help. "The least you could do is get the door for me." He said to Manny, who nodded and held open the door for the gorgon.

"Man, you can't bring him over to the graveball field. Frankie'll go nuts!" Clawd warned his friend. Deuce sighed, shifting his hold to maintain a grip on Jackson. It seemed he ended up carrying his friend away from things more often than he cared to lately, recalling the last time Jackson had passed out at school from a cold. He headed towards the more shaded, wooded area that led to the path to the cemetery. He figured that it would be quiet and secluded enough to take care of their friend without Frankie or Heath having a meltdown if they saw them. Once there, Deuce laid Jackson out on one of the bed-style tombstones, not at all pleased at how much his friend had started to shiver.

"Clawd, Manny, you guys need to head to the nurses office to get him some…aspirin, I think he said he takes when he's hurt." Deuce said, leaving no room for argument by Manny, who sheepishly nodded and headed back with Clawd.

* * *

"So…now what do we do?" Gil asked, unsure of how else to help their friend when they didn't know if this was the result of some injury or some cold. Deuce just shrugged. "We try to get him to wake up. After that, we have to get Frankie or Heath – they're the only ones who know anything about what to do for normies. He can't stay out here if he's freezing, or burning, or whatever's wrong with him."

"Well, we'll have to bring him home sooner or later." Deuce said. "I've been to his house enough times to know that his parents don't come home until a few hours from now." He said.

"Yeah, but we shouldn't keep Heath in the dark even if Manny is afraid of how he'll act around him from now on." Gil said, unnerved by how much Jackson seemed out of it and hoping that Deuce could be successful in his attempts to wake their friend. Maybe once awake, Jackson could provide them with all the answers like he usually did. Deuce continued to try and wake Jackson, receiving only marginal responses until eventually Jackson did open his eyes.

"Hey dude!" Deuce said to him, "About time you decided to wake up. You need to tell us what's wrong so we can help, okay?" he asked, trying to be gentle. Gil watched their exchange, briefly looking back down the path in the hope that he might spot their friends returning, but couldn't see them yet. Jackson seemed to just be mumbling to Deuce, and Gil noticed that something else was off.

"Deuce look at his eyes." Gil said. "Seriously, they're glassy-looking" he said as Deuce shot him a curious look to his remark. The gorgon did as Gil suggested and noticed the same thing. "It's gotta be from this fever." He said, Deuce nodding.

"Dude, you need to stay awake and talk to us." Deuce said to Jackson, easing his friend up to lean against the upright tombstone. Jackson just shoved his friend's hand off if him. "No. I want to sleep and never wake up again." He mumbled, closing his eyes to do just that. Concerned, Deuce tried to brush that comment aside by giving a forced laugh before responding. "Hey, yeah, I bet you're tired. But wait a little longer so you can tell us what's wrong, okay? Um…what hurts the most? We can start with that." He said, getting frustrated with Jackson's lack of cooperation.

Gil laughed at Deuce's reaction. "Man, he's so out of it right now he's like talking to a little kid." He said, trying to help out. As difficult as the situation was, he found he couldn't help but snicker at how frustrated Deuce was becoming. "You could always just turn him to stone for a little while to keep him from moving around…" he sarcastically offered. Unfortunately Jackson seemed to pick up on that, making to grab at Deuce's glasses. Deuce wrestled with him for a couple of seconds, Gil laughing at their little show until Jackson actually did snag the sunglasses and tossed them away from the two of them.

"You know how to make it permanent. You can do that." Jackson said as Deuce squeezed his eyes shut while Gil ran to pick up his glasses for him. "You can do that." Jackson repeated.

"Dude!" Deuce shouted, trying to keep Jackson still as the other had his hands on Deuce's face in an attempt to get him to open his eyes. "What are you doing?!" he cried out, smacking Jackson's hands away and trying to get him to calm down. By this time, Gil had put Deuce's glasses back onto his friend, alerting him that it was safe to open his eyes. Jackson had slumped a little in Jackson's hold, his breathing sounding more congested than before.

"Whoa…what was that all about? Why'd he ask you to do that? He does know what that means, right?" Gil asked Deuce, Jackson coughing as he was lowered back onto the ground by Deuce. The gorgon sighed as he looked back to Gil, unsettled by what Jackson had said to him and Gil. "Let's just go with what you were saying about acting like a little kid and that's he not in his right mind. Man, what did Manny do to him?" Deuce asked, hoping that Manny and Clawd would be back soon enough with Jackson's medicine.

"Okay let's try this again." Gil said, scooting closer to Jackson once he had stopped coughing. Jackson winced at the movement but hadn't fallen back asleep. "Let me try something." Gil said, trying to get Deuce to back off a second from his friend.

"You sure?" Deuce asked Gil. "No offense, but he can be a lot stronger than he looks." Deuce said, having witnessed Jackson's occasional feats of strength due to his partial monster heritage. Gil just rolled his eyes and pushed Deuce away.

"Yeah, well, for some reason he keeps asking you to kill him so let's not enable his suicidal tendencies right now." Gil said, grabbing a hold of one of Jackson's hands. "Jackson, can you just point out where things hurt?" he asked his friend as though speaking to a five-year-old. At Deuce's arched eyebrow, Gil explained, "It's how my parents talk to my little cousins when they're upset. I figured it was worth a shot."

Jackson seemed to register enough of what was going on, taking Gil's hand and placing it flat on his chest. He continued to wheeze and coughed a couple more times before he dropped his hand from Gil's. Gil and Deuce exchanged a curious yet worried look, knowing that there was always the possibility that Manny had done more damage than it seemed.

"I can't tell if anything's broken…"Gil said, gingerly feeling around the area that Jackson indicated. "But his heart is racing. We need to get some medicine into him." He said, keeping his hand on Jackson's chest as Jackson began to cough again. "That sounds like there's something messing around with his breathing too. We better hope it's just a normie cold." He said, taking his hand away to allow Deuce the chance to check over Jackson too. He also placed his hand on Jackson's chest but couldn't find anything immediately that would indicate anything to them. At that point, Manny and Clawd returned empty-handed back to the others.

"What happened? I thought you were gonna bring back something to help him?" Deuce asked the two, Clawd shrugging in his helplessness. "The nurses' office was locked when we got there. Nobody was inside so they must lock it to keep students from sneaking off with drugs like we were planning on doing." Clawd said.

Deuce groaned in frustration. "Fine. Then I guess we're gonna have to take him to his house." He said, focusing on getting Jackson to cooperate and move on his own.

"What? We can't let anybody know!" Manny said, panicking at the idea of having to face Jackson's parents after roughing up their son, especially when one of them already was known for not having the best anger management.

"He needs us to do something." Deuce said. "Besides, you can relax for now – his parents don't get home until much later. But he probably has the kind of medicine he needs at his house." Deuce said, having to catch Jackson after getting him to stand up only for him to sag into his side again.

"How'd you hit him Manny?" Clawd asked, turning to directly address the minotaur. Manny looked nervous at the question. Gil sighed but could see where Clawd's thought process was heading. "He said his chest hurt, he showed us where – sorta – but we need to know how we're gonna have to help him by knowing what exactly you did." Gil said, coming to grab Jackson's other arm and wrap it around himself to help Deuce keep him upright. Jackson still looked like he was dizzy and probably was going to be having trouble with straight lines for a while.

"C'mon Manny. This'll be your one and only time you get to take a swing at me." Clawd said. Manny still looked hesitant but a growl from Clawd spurred him to repeat the same move he'd used on Jackson, pinning Clawd up against the side of the tree he had been standing next to. Clawd's feet dangled briefly in the air before Manny set him back down. Clawd coughed a little and rubbed at his own chest.

"Man, no wonder he's like this." Clawd said, looking over at Jackson. Manny looked ashamed but had nothing left to say to defend himself, only begging them again to not tell Heath about it. "We might need to Manny…but let's just get him back to my car and we can take it from there." Deuce said in a clipped tone, not too pleased with what had happened. He had dealt with some of the stupid stuff that Holt had caused before, but typically he could more often than not convince him – or Jackson as it often turned out to be once Holt realized he'd been busted – to help fix things up quickly. But Manny seemed to be in his own state of shock and was just getting on everyone's nerves. The five of them made their way from the cemetery to the parking lot, Clawd getting in the back to grab a hold of Jackson as he looked to be ready to fall asleep again.

"Aw, man, we left his bag back by the school." Gil said. He considered asking Manny to go get it, but Deuce had already effectively dismissed him from further involvement. "I'll go get it. I'll be quick." He sighed, taking off in a jog to go back and get their friend's stuff. Finding it where he had last seen it, he was about to head back when Draculaura came over to talk with him. Gil swallowed, trying not to horribly panic like the last time he tried to lie to the girls.

"Hey Gil!" Draculaura smiled to him in her typical cheerful manner. "Is Clawd with you still? I was hoping I could talk with him, maybe set something up for tonight if you guys are done?" she asked, bouncing around in her fearleading uniform in her inability to stay still.

"Uh…no, he's not…I mean, yes he is, but not right now…um…" Gil stammered out, the vampire giving him a curious look. "We're not finished yet but we're heading out to go finish up someplace else." He rushed to say, awkwardly smiling at her.

"Oh? Where are you going? I could meet him there?" she asked, cocking her head to the side.

"Oh…uh…well, just someplace different. Um, I'm sure he'd appreciate the offer but this is…guy stuff…so, yeah. Bye!" Gil rushed, waving to her and sprinting back to the parking lot, leaving Draculaura standing there confused. Gil was sure that she was going to immediately go talk to the other girls about what had happened, but hoped he hadn't given too much away and desperately hoping that he didn't also run into Heath. He made it back to the car without any more unforeseen meetings with friends, and climbed into the passenger seat.

"I thought you said you were gonna be quick?" Deuce asked him as drove away. Gil sighed and turned to look out the back window as though expecting to see the girls following the car, but was relieved to not have them in his immediate view. "Draculaura wanted to talk. Well, she wanted to talk to Clawd about a date tonight and then she said she'd come with me when I said we were heading out to finish up our project. I had to say something to her." He said, trying to justify himself to the others. Clawd groaned, knowing that Draculaura would definitely have picked up on Gil's less than stellar ability to tell even a half-fib. "You didn't say where, did you?" he asked, Jackson moving around a little in the back. Gil gave him a look. "Please…I'm not that bad." He said, turning back around in his seat.

Clawd laughed at that remark, not so sure he could agree with that. He shifted his hold on Jackson, who let his head rest against Clawd's face. The werewolf hissed and pulled him back with a hand to his forehead. "Man, he's on fire!" Clawd said, shocked at how much Jackson's temperature had risen.

"Literally or figuratively dude?" Deuce asked, pulling onto Jackson's street. Jackson could produce a small flame on command like Heath and he wasn't so sure he could handle having his friend randomly shoot out flames at them if he wasn't in his right mind. Clawd gave a negative mumble, letting Deuce know that they weren't in danger of having anybody catch fire. They pulled up alongside Jackson's house, Deuce reaching in to grab a hold of Jackson and Gil looking around in Jackson's pocket until he found his keys. As quickly as they could, they dragged their friend up to his room, plopping him onto the bed a little less gently than they probably should have done. Jackson seemed to try and melt into the bed, starting to curl up. His shivering had stopped but the guys weren't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing considering his fever was definitely still there. They could tell that he was still breathing heavily too, coughing every now and then.

"Maybe we should take his shirts off, y'know, to check that there isn't any damage…" Gil suggested, shrugging his shoulders as the other two thought over his idea. Deuce seemed to think it reasonable enough and grabbed onto Jackson's shoulders to sit him back up again. He and Clawd managed to get his sweater vest off with less trouble than they thought, Jackson not making too much movement or noise on his own. But as they then took his yellow shirt off, they saw a large, purple and greenish-looking bruise that spread along Jackson's chest. At the removal of the last of his shirts, Jackson sucked in a gasp as he felt the loss of heat.

"Ouch." Gil sympathized, watching as Clawd and Deuce let him lay back on his bed again. "Are we sure he's okay? I mean, look at that…I think I can _see_ his heartbeat too." he said from his position at the end of the bed. Deuce looked over his friend again, sitting on the edge of the bed. As Gil had said, Jackson's difficulties were plenty visible as he wheezed, his heartbeat visible beneath his skin.

"You ever see him like that before?" Clawd asked of Deuce, knowing that out of the three of them, he spent the most time with Jackson. Deuce just shrugged. "No. But I get the impression he tries to not let us know if he's sick or hurt." He reasoned. "It's probably why he was avoiding us all day – not because he was mad at us. Manny only made things worse by giving him this bruise."

Clawd sighed. "I'll go see if he's got aspirin in his bathroom. We can try and get him to take some of that." He said, leaving the room to go look. Gil looked thoughtful. "We should see if he has a thermometer too…he may be part fire elemental, but I don't think Jackson's body can handle anything too high." He called out to Clawd from the doorway. "I'll go grab a bowl from the kitchen so we can wet a towel for him to bring down the fever. That's what normies do, right?" he said, thinking about their brief couple of classes on normie health at school, courtesy of Frankie's advocacy. Deuce nodded, his snakes twisting about on his head as Gil left him alone with Jackson in the room. Deuce placed his hand on his friend's chest again, trying to get him to wake up. Jackson stirred, blinking open his glassy eyes to look more or less at Deuce.

"Why didn't you turn me to stone?" Jackson whined. Deuce gave a heavy sigh. "This again? Dude, what's wrong? I know you're sick but this isn't healthy talk I'm hearing from you." Jackson tried to take in a deep breath but resulted in coughing again. "We'll get you some aspirin and you'll be better again in no time." He tried to encourage his friend.

Jackson shook his head, his eyes tearing up and starting to cry. "Hey! C'mon dude, no tears. You're tougher than that" Deuce tried to joke, giving Jackson a small smile. Clawd reentered the room with a bottle and a glass of water, Gil following behind him.

"Hey man." Clawd said in a gentle voice. "It's all good." He said, setting the glass on Jackson's bedside table. But Jackson continued to silently cry, his chest heaving. He made for quite a sight, as his congestion made it so that he couldn't cry without coughing too, but the bruise on his chest was also making things difficult. Clawd held out the aspirin bottle to Deuce to take, but Jackson smacked it away.

"No…I'm not taking them." Jackson said, sitting up a little and immediately regretting it by the look on his face and how quickly he collapsed back in the bed. "What's the point anyway? What would it matter to anyone if I wasn't around?" he grumbled into his pillow.

"Where's all this coming from?" Gil asked, sitting beside Jackson to place the cool damp towel to Jackson's forehead as Clawd retrieved the bottle from the other side of the room. He held it out to Deuce again, glaring at Jackson who made to repeat his performance. "I'm not playing fetch again man. You're taking these whether you like it or not." He growled out to Jackson. Deuce took it and poured two out into his hand. "C'mon dude. Take them and then we can talk." He said, trying to be understanding for his delirious friend. Seeing that Jackson was going to be difficult, he told Gil to hold him still and he forced Jackson to take the pills, holding his mouth closed until he swallowed them. "That was so much harder than it needed to be dude." Deuce said, shaking his head. "You're not an animal, man, so just relax." He said, getting up from his seat beside Jackson.

"It doesn't matter." Jackson said again, looking drained from all his effort. The others had no doubt that his illness was making him act so out of character, but it was left them wondering what to do for him. "I don't matter…" Jackson mumbled, starting to cry again. Gil replaced the wet towel on Jackson's head, looking to Deuce who had so far seemed to be the most in control of the situation.

"Yeah, well if that were true then we would have left you stuck in that locker." Deuce said, trying to ease Jackson back to sleep. Gil had been right about how frail he looked before and now it seemed even more so, his face stained with tears. "Hey guys, can you give me a sec with him? I'll see if I can figure out what he's mumbling about. Maybe he'll say something else if there's only one other person with him." Deuce suggested, Clawd and Gil happy to leave him to the task. They walked out the door and closed it behind them, leaving the two boys alone in the room.

"Okay, Jackson, what's up? Huh? You're scaring us monsters here." He said to Jackson, trying to get his friend to open up. "That's impressive for a normie and I'm not surprised you can pull it off, but we do want to help you, so just tell me dude." Deuce said, placing a hand on Jackson's chest to keep him from rolling away from him. Just that little amount of pressure though seemed to be enough to cause Jackson to wince as though Deuce had slapped him, his heartbeat hammering beneath Deuce's hand as he held him still. "Jackson, you need to calm down. Focus on me now, c'mon."

Jackson hiccupped a little, grabbing onto Deuce's hand. "I...just…don't wanna be here anymore…" Jackson said, causing Deuce's hand to unconsciously press a little harder on Jackson in response.

"Why?" Deuce asked, doing his best to keep his voice calm. "You don't mean…" he trailed off. Jackson just sighed, coughing a few times. "I mean Mons…Monster High. I don't belong there, but I don't belong anywhere. I don't know where to go, what to do…I can't seem to do anything right without getting bullied or told to do better or that I'm just not enough…and…and…I don't think I can take that anymore but I don't know how to make things better." Jackson rambled, eyes slipping shut.

"That's not true. Manny can be a bit of a jerk, but he felt bad about it enough to come get help for you. And what about Frankie?" Deuce said. He thought for sure that the mention of Jackson's girlfriend would be enough to snap him out of his delirium-induced funk. "What about you and me, dude? I thought we were really good bloodies? I know I would miss you if you weren't around as often anymore." Deuce said, Jackson looking up at him as though he could tell if he was lying if he stared long enough. But sleep seemed to be calling to him again and he was asleep shortly afterward. Deuce sat there for another moment or two in case Jackson was faking it, not removing his hand until he felt Jackson's breath even out a little more. He quietly left Jackson to sleep after readjusting the wet towel and making sure Jackson's glasses were on the bedside table within easy reach. He walked out into the hallway and shut the door again, turning to walk over to Clawd and Gil.

"So, is he okay?" Clawd asked, to which Deuce sighed and threw his hands up in the air. Deuce was about to repeat the little bit of information he was able to glean from Jackson when they heard a car door slam outside. Gil's eyes widened. "I thought you said his parents weren't supposed to be home yet?" he asked of Deuce. They heard the front door open and walked out to talk with Jackson's parents only to see Heath and Frankie instead.

"What are you two doing here?" Clawd asked them as the three descended down the stairs to stand in the living room with Heath and Frankie. Heath held up his keys and jangled them to get his point across. "I have a spare key since this is, y'know, my cousin's house after all. Better question is why you guys are here since you clearly aren't working on our project." Heath said, waiting for answers. Deuce instead turned to Frankie. "And you came along because…" he asked.

"Jackson is still my boyfriend last I checked. I wanted to talk with him since I didn't get a chance to at school. Draculaura filled me in on Gil's fishy behavior and I wanted to check things out myself." Frankie said, crossing her arms. "Besides, Manny was acting weird when Iris tried to talk with him in the parking lot too."

"Yeah, he wouldn't even talk to me. It wasn't like him" Heath said. "So…are we all just gonna keep standing here or can we go get Jackson?" the fire elemental asked, making to head upstairs to where he knew his cousin's room to be located. But Deuce, Clawd and Heath's look between each other was enough to catch his fleeting attention, making him pause in his movements.

"What? What is it?" Heath asked, Frankie also looking curiously at them now too. Clawd shook his head, looking to Gil who copied the motion. "I'm not gonna tell him – it's all you Deuce." Gil said, causing Heath to start to flame up as his friends continued to hide something from him and Frankie. Deuce sighed. "Okay dude…well, Manny did a number on Jackson earlier and he came to get us to pick up the pieces of his mess." Deuce said, regretting his word choice as Frankie gasped and her eyes widened.

"OH MY GHOUL! What did Manny do?" Frankie asked, practically shouting in Deuce's face. Heath wasn't doing much better either it seemed. Deuce rushed to continue. "I didn't mean…look he's in one piece – sort of – but he must have been sick all day and that's why he was avoiding us. At least we're assuming that's the case and Manny didn't knock too much loose." Deuce said, Heath growling and intending to storm upstairs to look in on his cousin. But Clawd held him back. "Wait a sec, bro. There's somethin' else you might want to think about too." he said. He looked to Deuce but it seemed he had passed the burden of telling the others what had happened onto himself. "Look. Has he seemed, I dunno, different lately to you two? Depressed maybe and we just didn't notice it?" Clawd asked. Heath and Frankie both had a thoughtful look on their faces as they recalled the past couple of days.

Heath shrugged. "Why? C'mon guys, what else happened?" he asked, Frankie nodding her head vigorously in agreement as she too was just barely keeping herself from rushing up to wake her boyfriend.

"Well, he sorta asked Deuce…and he wasn't sounding like he was kidding each time he said something like this…to…well, he asked him to…" Clawd mumbled, not wanting to be the one to outright say what the three of them were thinking Jackson had been saying. Frankie had enough of waiting at this point, her bolts sending shocks out to the guys in her irritation. Deuce jumped a little, rubbing the spot where the jolt has truck him. "Ow! Alright, alright! He asked me turn him to stone, as in permanently. He even grabbed my glasses off my head to try and trigger that on his own." Deuce said. Frankie stood there open-mouthed, at a complete loss of what to say. Deuce sighed again. "He knows what that means too. He tried to refuse any medicine to help him get better too. But he's got a high fever and I'm not sure he really meant what he was saying fully either."

Heath sat down on the edge of the couch, trying to comprehend what his friends had just told him. "What else did he say?" Heath quietly asked, his hair not even flaming up in his shock. Deuce groaned, knowing that he was the only one to provide the answers. "He told me after Clawd and Gil left the room, after he repeated how much he though no one would notice or care if he wasn't around anymore and that he didn't matter, that he didn't want to be here - with us - anymore." Deuce said.

Frankie couldn't contain herself anymore and a few tears started to leak out of her eyes. Deuce put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm definitely sure he was talking about Monster High and not being able to fit in. Something else must have happened recently though to make him think like this, fever or not," Deuce said, hoping Heath or Frankie might have something to contribute. Unfortunately what he said appeared to have them stunned. "I mean… We were filming when Gil decided to take a break and we crossed the graveball field to head back into the school. Jackson opted to sit beside the bleachers and wait, but by the time we came back he was gone. We were waiting around for him when Manny came to find us, not wanting to let you know what happened." Deuce said, turning from Frankie to Heath. Heath ran a hand down his face, thinking about how to deal with his cousin and his friendship with the minotaur. They stood in silence for a moment until Frankie let out another gasp.

"Wait, when was Jackson by the bleachers?" she frantically asked of the three guys. Clawd scratched at his head. "I dunno. It was probably a half hour after classes had ended I think. Why?" he said to her, tilting his head to the side. "Is that important?" Gil asked.

"Yes…if he thought he saw…ooh…" Frankie moaned in frustration, sounding more like Ghoulia than herself. "Neighthan was asking me for help in getting up the courage to ask out a girl for the dance after the game, to act as his wingman, or wing-girl…"she rambled, unsure of what to call her position. "Anyway, I told him that of I was going to be at that dance and that of course I would help him because I do still care about him – he is my friend after all. I went to kiss him on the cheek to try and make him less nervous but he turned at the wrong time and we kissed on the lips. We were both a little shocked and so didn't immediately pull away, but we apologized to each other right after." She continued to explain.

"So if Jackson only heard and saw a part of that, he would assume the worst, especially with Holt's antics down in the catacombs not that long ago that caused him to think the same way. Ugh…" Clawd sighed. "Jackson's already unstable being split the way he is and the guy is always so tense. No wonder he bolted into the school and right into Manny's waiting fist." He grumbled, shaking his head.

"So…he's not suicidal?" Heath asked his friends. "Just sick and confused at the moment?" he asked, standing up. At his friends' collective shrugs he sighed and continued up the stairs. "Heath, let me come too." Frankie said, following the fire elemental upstairs. "He's likely to fall apart as much as I am it seems. I need to explain" she said.

"Not sure anything is gonna get through to him through his fever right now." Gil shouted up to them, but they had already moved away from them to check on Jackson for themselves. The three just looked to each other.

"Might as well try to finish up our project now while we're doing nothing." Clawd suggested. "We can go out back and set up and be done soon enough." He said, the others not overly eager to go back to their project in their concern for their friend, but not wanting to spend the weekend on it either.

An hour later, and a call from Jackson's parents to let him know that they'd be home an hour later than expected due to something a friend from work sprung on them last minute, the guys had finished their project and were sitting around Jackson's backyard. The medicine seemed to be keeping Jackson asleep, but neither of them ventured back into his room with Frankie deciding to keep watch it seemed. Heath made his way out to his friends, carrying a tray with drinks on it. Placing it on the patio table, he sat down in the remaining empty chair.

"Well, Manny certainly did a number on him. Man, I thought I'd talked him out of those things by now." Heath sighed, slumping in his chair. "I guess we're gonna have to have another talk next time I see him. Holy smokes was Jackson out of it." He said, taking a sip from his drink. "Frankie talked to him to explain things, but he kept talking about locker doors out to get him for some reason. But I think his fever's come down some since you gave him some medicine. Frankie's playing nurse right now to make sure he takes the right amount when." He said, earning a few laughs from the guys.

"She may fret, but I think she secretly enjoys taking care of Jackson when he allows her to – or is unable to say otherwise like right now." Clawd said. "Draculaura also likes to try and make me feel better if I happen to catch a cold. She's not as good with injuries though- especially when I get a scrape from a game. Oh well" he said. Gil laughed, also thinking of his girlfriend. "Weren't you supposed to call her or something?" Gil asked, causing Clawd's eyes to widen as he realized he had forgotten to do so. He stood up from the table and pulled out his phone.

"I'm gonna go do that now. Anything I need to _not_ mention Heath? Aside from Jackson's delirious ramblings?" he asked but Heath shrugged. "Nah. I don't think he'd get too upset if you told the other girls he wasn't feeling well. Who knows? Maybe I should tell Abbey how I'm looking after my cousin? She seems to find that sort of thing adorable and might be more friendly with me later…" he said, earning an eye roll from Deuce and Clawd choosing to walk away to call his girlfriend.

"Dude, you showed up for the very end. That shouldn't count as taking all the credit" he said. "You didn't have to hear the scary stuff he was spouting out too." Deuce said. Heath sighed again. "No, but I've heard similar things from him before about being insecure with things and just brushed him off as a normie thing. But I know he really does struggle to make a place for himself. I guess that's why he was acting that way with you since his fever just let it all loose at once." He said, finishing up his drink as he couldn't find anything else to say to that.

"He'll be so embarrassed once he's better though." Gil said, thinking about how much Jackson seemed to shrink from the spotlight. "Y'know, once he's done trying to convince everyone that he didn't need anyone to do anything for him."

Deuce nodded his head in agreement, watching as Clawd paced back and forth on the lawn like a leashed dog as he talked to Draculaura. Heath perked up, his hair coming alight. "Hey guys. I got a great idea!" he said.

"Uh oh. What is it?" Deuce warily asked, having experienced a few of Heath's "great ideas" in the past and come to regret them. Heath just waved his hands around to dismiss the negativity he received from Deuce. "Hey Clawd, come here. Put Draculaura on speaker for a sec!" he shouted out to his friend, earning curious looks from his friends. Nevertheless, Clawd walked back over, asking for Draculuara to hold on a minute as he was going to put her on speaker.

"Okay D', you're on speaker. Go ahead Heath." Clawd said, setting the phone down on the table. "Hey Draculaura." Heath said. "Hi Heath…" Draculaura said, obviously confused. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Okay. So I don't know if Frankie's told you anything about it yet, but Jackson and Holt have a birthday coming up in the next two weeks. I'm not sure what their plans are yet but…" he started to say but was cut off by a high-pitched squeal from the other side of the phone.

"Oh! Heath! Of course!" she shouted into the phone. "That'll be perfect. Okay. I'll talk to the others. Ooh, you're so clever. That should definitely cheer him up." She started to ramble. "I've got to call the girls. I'll see you tomorrow Clawd. Bye!" she said, abruptly hanging up despite Clawd's protest.

"What was that all about?" Clawd asked, putting his phone away again. Heath smiled to his friends. "Well, what better way for the girls to show their appreciation of Jackson and Holt than with a party?" he said, shrugging. "I know it might be a little difficult for Jackson, but if we can surprise him with Frankie's help, it might make him feel better…and I have no idea what to get for him anyway so, this should count, right?" he said, chuckling.

Deuce shook his head again at Heath's antics. Although he had to admit that the girls would've made adjustments to anything they had set up and it might actually be good for Jackson – not that Holt ever seemed to say no to a good party either. "Let's just hope that this brilliant plan of yours works." He said.

"Come on. Have you no faith in the Heathster?" he asked, receiving looks from the others that just made him roll his eyes. "Okay, but what about the girls then? It'll be fine." He assured them. Gil checked the time and mentioned it to the others, suggesting that they head back to their own homes before Jackson's parents showed up to what looked like a party at their house. Heath walked them out to their car, giving a wave before heading back in and walking up the stairs to join Frankie in Jackson's room. Seeing his cousin sound asleep he motioned for Frankie to leave the room. But Frankie remained put and Heath reluctantly entered the room again.

"Hey" he whispered. "I've got the other girls all set to plan something for Jackson and Holt for his birthday in a couple of weeks. That okay with you?" he asked, shooting glances back over to his cousin to make sure he wasn't hearing their conversation. Frankie's face lit up in excitement. "That's a great idea." She said to him, giving him a hug. "It looks like his fever is still there but he's resting easier now."

"You're gonna have to head home soon too you know. His parents will be here any minute and I'll drive you back to your house, okay?" Heath said to her, Frankie looking like she wanted to argue to stay with him, but realized that his parents would more than be able to take care of him and she could stop by tomorrow possibly or at least call him. As if on cue, Jackson's parents walked in at that moment. Heath and Frankie walked out into the hallway, softly closing Jackson's door to let him sleep. They briefly explained that Jackson had gotten sick at school, omitting certain details here and there, but forced to tell about how he'd had a run-in with the school bully that caused the large bruise on his chest. Jackson's father nodded his head at them and headed upstairs to check on his son, his wife walking Heath and Frankie outside. She thanked them and Heath and Frankie waved to her as they pulled away, feeling like they had been able to help Jackson in their own small way.

* * *

Jackson had made a full recovery, minus the lingering bruise by the time school was back in session on Monday, although Frankie continued to hover around him more than he was comfortable. But he figured that he had brought this on himself by trying to avoid her attempts to help him earlier on. She had explained what she had learned he'd misheard and seen back at the bleachers and wanted to assure him that there was nothing going on. She compared it to the kiss she had seen Holt give Operetta that one time, and how Clair had sprung a few kisses on Jackson to play around with her friend. Jackson had laughed, but Frankie could tell that he didn't think of it as the same thing. Frankie had been discouraged to realize that when compared with Cleo and Deuce's relationship – supposedly the model couple of Monster High – it turned out that she was the one constantly having to reassure him that they were in fact still together while he, and Holt, continued to do anything and everything in their power to keep her happy with them.

But as the days approached his birthday, Jackson had attempted to make casual, subtle remarks that he wanted to do something with his friends. Holt had also mentioned it a few times, although more vocal than Jackson. The girls found it increasingly harder not to give their secret away as Holt continued to pester his friends and Jackson looked more and more like a rejected puppy when his friends pretended to keep forgetting things he may have said. Frankie and Deuce were especially concerned, as was Heath, given the remarks that Jackson had let slip but swore repeatedly until a blush covered his entire face that he did not remember ever saying. They kept their guard up when Jackson seemed more discouraged with his friends, and tried to talk to Holt about any lingering feelings he might have picked up on from Jackson or possibly shared with him. They had been relieved to learn that Holt genuinely had no idea what they were trying to talk to him about and so they left it alone.

As Jackson and Holt's birthday finally rolled around, the plan was to convince Jackson that he needed to help Frankie with something she and Draculaura were doing at Draculaura's house. They planned on stopping at the park under the pretense that something had gone wrong with Draculaura's car and that Jackson needed to help with fixing it. The next step in the girl's overly complicated plan was to pretend that Frankie's hand had gotten disconnected again and instead of trying to fix the car, she needed the two of them to help her get ahold of it again, running past the wall of pine trees so that Jackson would literally run into his party. While elaborate, it kept the observant mad scientist from focusing too much on any one thing and being pleasantly surprised to find that his friends did care enough to put together something for him.

"This is…awesome, guys." Jackson said later in the party as made his way back around to this friends. It wasn't the grand affair like the girls' usual parties, but they had invited plenty of people who showed up to help celebrate. "Thanks…um…I know you probably don't want to hear any sappy stuff, but I really do appreciate all this to make me feel, like I belong." Jackson mumbled, scratching the back of his head as he tried to get beyond his nervousness at talking to his friends. Deuce just smacked him on the arm in response, the guys opting to show their affection toward one another through their typical rough gestures. The girls however, were more open to Jackson's admission, with the typical eye roll as expected from Clawdeen over the dramatics. Frankie pulled her boyfriend into a hug, giggling a little at his speech. She pulled him over to where the dance area had been set up and away from their friends.

"I know you just want to tell them that this is what you had been hoping for, but there's got to be a less awkward way to tell the guys." She laughed at him, swaying a little. "Y'know. As much as I enjoy this softer kind of music, I'm not so sure you should let Holt miss the party too since it's his too." she tried to tactfully suggest. Jackson sighed. "Aww, Frankie. Please…just a few more minutes" Jackson pleaded, holding her tighter to him. "Holt spent most of the day out and I don't get to spend time like this with you or the others – you always ask for him to go to parties and things…"he trailed off. Frankie pulled back, concerned at the tone in his voice. Her worry was evident on her face, Jackson being able to easily pick it up and no doubt the others could too if they hadn't been farther away from them over by the tables.

"Jackson, whenever you need to talk, you know you can call me or Heath or even Deuce." She said, shooting a look over to Jackson's cousin as though trying to silently call him over for help in talking to Jackson. Unfortunately for her, Heath was too engrossed with attempting to perform some trick for Abbey with flaming kabobs, much to Draculaura's and Cleo's horror. Jackson sighed and Frankie looked up to face him directly.

"Frankie, I told you already. I was delirious – fevers will do that – and mixed with the good old-fashioned teenage hormones, I said some things that had no meaning behind them. Sure…" he tried to convince her, "I may feel out of place more often than I'd like to admit, but I can handle it. There's always someone who had it worse and still seems to be able to pull through so I know I can manage. I'm really okay. And I'll talk to you guys about anything if something comes up – deal?" he negotiated with her, Frankie giving a small nod. "Although, my last attempt was not exactly so successful if you had to pull me away." He chuckled, giving a small wave to Deuce who had looked over their way. "But the last thing I want is for you guys to start tip-toing around me. Just be yourself and I'll be myself….or Holt….you know what I mean." He tried to finish up, but tripping up on the end as he tried to rationalize which pronoun he should use in describing himself and Holt. But it did the trick and Frankie seemed to finally ease up around him since his illness, snuggling into his side a little.

"Okay…I believe you." She said, tightening her monstrous hold on him until he gave a little grunt to let her know that she was going a little too far. She immediately pulled back with an apologetic face, but Jackson waved off her concern. "I've gotten used to your occasional accidents Frankie – it happens. Like I said, just be you." He said, smiling. "Five more minutes and I'll let Holt join in, okay? I think you're right – I think those two are asleep." Jackson said, indicating a couple with their heads down on their table. Frankie giggled, but felt like things really should be back to their version of normal. Looking around, she could see Cleo and Deuce swaying on the dance floor now too, with Gil and Lagoona sitting together over by the fountain. Heath and Abbey seemed to be content in performing different tricks with their abilities for one another, Abbey's deep laugh drifting over every now and then. Frankie snuggled up against her boyfriend, closing her eyes as she listened to the music and enjoying the little touches he sent her way to let her know that he was there. She thought that she really was lucky enough to have such wonderful monsters – and half monsters – around her for her to be able to place her trust in

A scratching noise was heard as the music started to loop due to Heath having shot a flaming something a little too close to the equipment. Sighing, Jackson pulled away and gave a smile to Frankie before walking over and fixing the equipment before Ghoulia or Operetta could walk over. As soon as he was done, more upbeat music starting playing and true to his word, Jackson released Holt. "Aww yeah. Let's get a real party goin'!" he shouted, waking up the sleeping couple Jackson had mentioned earlier, with his typical laugh.

A few cheers were heard from the other guests as they got to hear other music and hang out with Holt too. Frankie smiled and walked over to where Holt started to mess around with the music some more. "Hey Frankie-Fine….what's the party for?" he asked, not caring that he may have apparently crashed another party like he had with the now-infamous party at Cleo's. Frankie laughed and shook her head. "You don't know what day it is?" she asked him. Holt pulled his headphones down off his ears now that the music was loud enough so that he could hear Frankie better. He looked curiously at her. "You know I'm not so good with days and times – Jackson and I have a hard time keepin' those things straight. 'Sides, I get to checkin' on those things later." He said, shrugging as Frankie continued to laugh at Holt's typical disregard for pursuing information other than making sure he was able to focus on what he liked to do. "Jackson let me out for half the day on our birthday like he agreed to – so I'm gonna guess it's the next day?" he said to her, scrunching his face up as he guessed.

Frankie walked closer to him and pulled him down into an unexpected kiss. Pulling away, he had a goofy face plastered on him that made it obvious to onlookers how he and Jackson were two sides of the same person, especially when it came to Frankie. She laughed as he recovered from his shock and smiled. "Happy birthday Holt." She said, wrapping her arms around his neck. "This is the surprise party Heath had the girls and I set up for you and Jackson. So don't spend the whole time playing with your music when you could play with me." She said, giving one more kiss before leaving him standing there contemplating what he was supposed to do. Holt looked over to Heath for more information, hoping that his cousin out of everybody would be able to keep him up to speed, but Heath seemed to be enjoying Holt's confusion. Frankie chuckled again before sitting back down at one of the tables to wait for one of her friends or Holt to take a break with her. With a content sigh, she realized that Jackson had meant that they all needed to be able to trust another enough to be themselves and it seemed like they were definitely able to continue building that for a long time to come.


End file.
